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Why Can't Horses Be Pink?

Kids have a great imagination. You can tell by the pictures on your fridge, where the kid's face is as big as the sun. That's because kids see things differently. That's evident in this week's Kids Want To Know question, why can't horses be pink?
2 Wants To Know

Kids have a great imagination. You can tell by the pictures on your fridge, where the kid's face is as big as the sun. That's because kids see things differently. That's evident in this week's Kids Want To Know question, why can't horses be pink?

The simple answer is DNA.

"DNA is Deoxyribonucleic acid. It is found in almost every cell in the body and it's a molecule that basically has the code that tells the body how to develop, what traits to have and what the body is going to look like," said Veterinarian Clarissa Noureddine. "So horses today there DNA doesn't tell them to make a pink coat it tells them to make like back, bay and chestnut.

"You may actually be interested to know that it depends how you look at it because you could say that some horses are pink."

She says that some color variations in some horses like that Blue Roan and the Rose Gray that could potentially appear pink or reddish pink to somebody looking at them.

"There is a rare horse a dominate white horse that has a white coat but they don't have pigment in their skin," said Noureddine, "So in fact you can kind of see underneath there skin and what's under the skin is the fine network of blood vessels called capillaries. These dominate white horses with the skin you can kind of see through, there skin does appear a little bit pink."

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